Cool Schools: North Bethesda Middle School Science Champs

BETHESDA, Md. (WUSA9) -- From the sand to the sky students at this week's cool school can relate it all to science. They are so good, it's not a stretch to say the talent is Olympic caliber.

At North Bethesda Middle School we met some state science champs who built a dulcimer and have the knowledge behind the notes.

Student Carolyn Subramamiam told us, "We decided the sounds of the strings and the wind would go well together."

The 7th and 8th graders just won the state title in the Science Olympiad.

Eight grader Emily Louie said, "Actually a lot of the questions they asked us are about the different wave lengths so when you tighten it gets higher and the wave lengths get shorter."

Now they go on to a national championship in Ohio. Their teacher, Heather Cameron, told us, "We've got like, 23 events that kids enter and there is only 15 kids on the team."

They built a crane arm out of balsa wood and glue to see how much sand it can hold, and learn which shape is the strongest to use in construction to defy gravity. In the rotary egg drop, the surface area and pitch of the propellers make all the difference for a soft landing. When it comes to lift, projects like the rubber band helicopter show off their design skills. Their best test flight went more than 100 feet in the air.

"The four blade slows it coming down but it's a lot heavier, but we're actually using the two-bladed design at nationals because we've gotten better times with it," remarked Josh Karpktin.